>Snowbound is done, and off to be read before sending in.
I love it when things come together like that!
19
Oct
2010
16
Oct
2010
>Something new.
>I went to start working on House of Sable Locks again, but the words weren’t flowing. And I have two deadlines coming up, so I figured, let me work on one of those. Nothing in the creative brain for Like a Cunning Plan yet. But Nick and Steven are always ready to play….
Yep, I’ll be submitting a Nick and Steven story for the Circlet advent calendar. Working title is Snowbound, and if you remember these two from The Hand You’re Dealt, you know that’s a bit of a double entendre. Oh, and if I have to tell you that this is NSFW, then someone hasn’t been paying attention.
Want a taste? Now, this is pretty raw — complete stream of consciousness stuff. So it might change a little before I’m finished. But here’s the beginnings of this new scene:
*****
“Happy, mily?” he murmured into my hair.
“A little sorry that we’re going to miss Christmas with the folks,” I admitted. “But otherwise? Yes, I’m happy.” I tipped my head back, expecting him to kiss me. Instead, he ran his finger down my exposed throat to hook on the chain that I wore, the one that marked me as his. He tugged gently and laughed.
“Shall I make you happier?”
I smiled, “Is that a proposition, Kolya?”
“Do you want it to be?” This time he did lean down and kiss me, his arm around my shoulder tightening as he pulled me to him. I closed my eyes and leaned into him, sliding my hand up under his sweater and tugging on his undershirt. He laughed against my lips and pulled back. “Not yet, you don’t,” he said, pushing my hand down. He gently pushed me back and the couch shifted as he stood up. “Take your clothes off. I’ll be right back.”
“You’ve been planning this! I know you have!” I called out as I heard him leave the room. No answer, so I pulled my sweater over my head and started undoing the buttons on my shirt. By the time I heard Nick coming back, I was down to my skivvies and socks. I stripped out of them quickly. Not quickly enough, it seemed.
“Being a little slow?”
“It’s cold,” I answered, standing up straight. “Can we throw another log on the fire if we’re going to play in here?”
In answer, I heard the firescreen squeak, and then a pair of soft thumps. The fire started to crackle a little more as the screen squeaked again. Then Nick was behind me, his hands cold on my hips, “Better?”
I nodded and leaned back against him, feeling the rough wool of his sweater scratching against my back. “Much. Now what?”
His answer was to pull my arms behind me, crossing my wrists and binding them tightly with something wide and soft. I felt it brush my fingertips and realized what he was using. “Ribbon?”
“Red and green stripes. Very seasonal,” he answered. “Now let me move you.”
First, he brought me down to my knees and leaned me over the ottoman. It wasn’t an unfamiliar position, by any means, but he was still fully dressed. I heard a snap, and a moment later something cold and hard was pressing against my ass. I took a deep breath and relaxed for the butt-plug, trying not to squirm too much as Nick used it to tease me until I was so turned on I could barely stand it, my cock full and damn near screaming for attention. Nick wasn’t done yet, though, and once he’d finally put the plug where he wanted it, he pulled me back up to my feet and steadied me until I could walk I let him steer me and ended up closer to the fire, my back growing pleasantly warm as he left me there and started doing something else. It sounded like he was moving something heavy, but I was distracted by my cock and by the plug and couldn’t figure out what it could be. When he came back to me, he led me back across the room and sat me down, which was when I found out what he had been doing — the couch where we had been sitting was a king-sized futon, and now the cushion was gone, leaving me sitting gingerly on the cool wooden slat frame. Nick nudged me gently until I was where he wanted me, then moved away.
“Don’t move,” he said, his voice now coming from behind me. I heard a hissing sound, and then something narrow, soft and cool — more ribbon, I assumed — pressed up against my belly. It tightened, and another ribbon followed the first, a little higher up, until my torso was bound tightly to the frame and I was feeling very much like a bug caught in a spider’s web.
“Comfortable?” Nick asked. He’d come around the futon again, and was standing in front of me. I tried to shift and found that I couldn’t move an inch in either direction. The bondage was tight, secure, and incredibly arousing. I had no idea where he was going with this, but I knew I wanted more.
“I’m fine,” I answered.
“Good. Now spread your legs, as wide as you can.” I did what I was told, and felt Nick’s hands on my left knee, pulling my leg a little further out before he started to tie it to the frame. He did the same to the other leg, running more ribbon from my knees to the tops of my thighs, leaving me completely, obscenely spread. It wasn’t uncomfortable by any means — even though it had been a long time since I’d last danced, I was still ridiculously flexible. Right at that moment, it was a good thing, too. Nick certainly seemed to think so. He ran his nails down the inside of my thigh, and I heard him laugh as I moaned and tried to move. Instead of doing anything else to me, he moved away, and I felt something tighten around my ankle. A sharp tug, and I knew he’d tied my ankles to the legs of the frame. I wasn’t going anywhere until he released me. Yippee!
08
Oct
2010
>State of the Queue.
>The current state of the Imp….
To Revise
Prince of Air (This is the current priority — self-set deadline of August 15)
To Write:
Audition piece for the SOOPER SEKRET collaborative project.- House of Sable Locks (novel, in progress — second priority)
- Short story for Like a Cunning Plan. (deadline Dec 15th)
- Holiday short story for the Advent Calendar. (deadline Dec 1st)
- Drum Mage (Bumped up in priority since “The Hand You’re Dealt” came out)
- Sea Prince (To be written with Danielle Jones)
- Wanderer’s Moon (next book in the Midnight Moon series.)
To Outline
- Coral Throne (sequel to Sea Prince)
- Hidden Things (Mystere Book 1)
- Mystere Book 2 (which hasn’t given up the title yet and may turn into book 3 and A&L will be book 2)
- Ashes and Light (Mystere Book 3)
- Tablets of Stone (Mystere Book 4)
- Tales from the Arena
To Sell
- Nomad’s Moon
- Exile’s Moon
- Infernal Machine
- Princes of Air
Allow to percolate
- Professional virgin story (no title as of yet)
- Wandering star story
05
Oct
2010
>THIRTY!
>Princes of Air is done.
62,127 words. Easily the longest thing I’ve ever written solo.
And now… off to the beta readers!
04
Oct
2010
>Who exactly is the enemy here?
>I posted to Facebook the other day about Spirit Day. And a friend (Friend A) decided that my Facebook was the place to vent his rage at what he sees as an attack by Christianity on homosexuals. Another friend (Friend B) pointed out to him that he was painting Christianity with a very wide brush and that not all Christians were like that. I told Friend A that he needed to soapbox in his own Facebook, not in mine.
Friend A proceeded to tell me off, and then tell Friend B that yes, ALL Christians were TEH EVIL!!! At that point, I told Friend A that we were done, and he was not allowed to insult my friends. And I unfriended him.
He then sent me a message telling me that I was being unsupportive.
Um…. no. I ripped him a new one, pointed out that he was acting like the hate-mongers who condemn all Muslims for the crimes of a few, and then asked him if he would like it if all SCA members were condemned for the acts of the idiot child molester up in PA.
His response? My choice, and if I chose to SUPPORT THE ENEMY, then he didn’t want anything to do with me.
I held back from telling him to grow the fuck up. Maybe I should have. But he’s been blocked now, and apparently, I’m now THE ENEMY.
Later, I’ll probably look at this and laugh my ass off. Right now, I’m too pissed. I’m gonna go write a fight scene now and try to cool off.
03
Oct
2010
>Spirit Day – October 20th.
>Originally posted by ![[info]](https://i0.wp.com/l-stat.livejournal.com/img/userinfo.gif?resize=17%2C17){kind=small}
neo_prodigy at Spirit Day
It’s been decided. On October 20th, 2010, we will wear purple in honor of the 6 gay boys who committed suicide in recent weeks/months due to homophobic abuse in their homes at at their schools. Purple represents Spirit on the LGBTQ flag and that’s exactly what we’d like all of you to have with you: spirit. Please know that times will get better and that you will meet people who will love you and respect you for who you are, no matter your sexuality. Please wear purple on October 20th. Tell your friends, family, co-workers, neighbors and schools.
RIP Tyler Clementi, Seth Walsh (top)
RIP Justin Aaberg, Raymond Chase (middle)
RIP Asher Brown and Billy Lucas. (bottom)
REBLOG to spread a message of love, unity and peace.
(Edited because the images used in the original graphic were used without the permission of the families.)
03
Oct
2010
>My inner editor sucks rocks…
>I came to the decision this morning that everything I wrote yesterday is crap, and needs to be redone.
I hate it when this happens. I’m already behind on this manuscript! ARGH!!!!
29
Sep
2010
>I love The GIMP
>The GIMP? What’s The GIMP?
If you don’t know, The GIMP is the GNU Image Manipulation Program, kinda of an open-source Photoshop. (It’s free, runs on Windows AND Linux, and you can get it over here.)
So… with the time that I was supposed to be writing this morning while the boy was in school (cough cough… slacker… cough cough…), I made up a neat little jewel box insert and CD label for the Omnibus CDs that I currently have in my possession. (For sale! $20 for all four ebooks! And signed copies will be at the Blissful Lotus anniversary party this Saturday!)
So, take a look at what I did. It came out pretty nicely, although I did have to scale it up when I printed it out. Now you know what to look for when you go shopping! Now… let me go finish this book…
16
Sep
2010
>Silver Lining
>I suppose a good thing that comes out of Elizabeth Moon’s screed is that it saves me a boatload of money. Now I don’t have to buy any of her books.
Honestly, you’d expect one of the luminaries of SFF to not have her head so far up her ass she can count her own back teeth…
10
Sep
2010
>Research fun…
>With the end of the second part of the novella in sight, I am thinking ahead to the third, and to the big bad for that one. Which required a little bit of research into something that I read about once while reading Celtic mythology: demons of the air.
Apparently, these were some of the most feared creatures in the ancient Celtic world. And if you were REALLY bad, you got turned into one and suffered for all eternity. (I refer you to Aoife, the step-mother in the Celtic Snow White equivalent The Children of Lir)
Now, the thing is, that story is the only place I can find any substantial reference to demons of air. They are mentioned in the Tain bo Cuilagne (The Cattle Raid of Cooley) but only in passing (the passage in question involved Cuchulain roaring in anger, and the demons of air all fly away in fear. Not exactly helpful.)
Then, I found The Dictionary of Celtic Mythology (Thank you, Google Books! You have once again saved my bacon!) And on page 353, there was this interesting little snippet, that again talks about Aoife:
Aife then proceeds to Bobd’s palace at Killaloc, where her treachery is soon discovered and she is punished by being transformed into a demon (sometimes vulture), condemned to wander through the air forever.
Now, demon is not a term that is native to the ancient Celts. They borrowed it (or it was applied to their mythology) by later Christians. So what was it that the Christians were editing to suit their own mythos?
I have my ideas. And they’ll show up in Princes of Air. (What, did you think I was going to just tell you?)